The present disclosure relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same.
Multilayer ceramic capacitors are used in a wide range of electronic products. Further, as multilayer ceramic capacitors are used in electronic devices providing a variety of different functions and requiring high degrees of reliability, the multilayer ceramic capacitors themselves require high degrees of reliability.
To improve the reliability of multilayer ceramic capacitors, there is a need to secure structural stability in multilayer ceramic capacitors. For this purpose, the occurrence of defects in ceramic body portions of multilayer ceramic capacitors, in internal electrodes thereof, and the like, needs to be considerably reduced.
A range of factors cause defects in the body portion, the internal electrodes, or the like in a multilayer ceramic capacitor. Among these factors, a difference in sintering rates due to a difference in sintering temperatures of materials forming the internal electrode and the body portion commonly causes defects. That is, the internal electrodes and the body portion may respectively be formed of metal and ceramic as main components, and therefore during sintering, the internal electrode may first be sintered and then the ceramic may be sintered. Therefore, when the sintering temperature is adjusted, based on the internal electrode, defects such as pores due to non-sintered portions may be increased in a margin region of a cover or a side. On the contrary, when the sintering temperature is adjusted based on the material of the body, the internal electrodes may be over-sintered and therefore, an electrode agglomeration phenomenon may occur.